I did or I helped someone abort: Is there pardon for my sin?
by Ricardo Gaiotti
with contribution by Daniel Machado
This question was one of many sent to Destrave after the publication of the special report on the theme of abortion. Women who, even many years after having done this, still carry the marks of this action.
Below, some of the many comments received about this theme:
I am 18 years old, dating for 7 months and already I took the day after pill 4 times. I repent alot!!!! “Will it be that I have the ability for salvation?”
“I did an abortion when I was still very young, the pain that I carry today is huge. I fear the errors of my past, until today, I have not pardoned myself for this act. I know that I will never erase this from my memory.”
“I am a woman of 57 year, a widow, catholic, I have two children. I have a friend of 90 years, that cannot forgive herself. In her words: ‘How can I go to Heaven. And when the Lord ask for an account of the death of my son? What do I say to Him? How am I going to justify why I have killed my son’ In the time she found that it was the answer, but now she knows and has conscience of what she did and cannot forgive herself.
In fact, abortion is a grave sin, that does not have space for justification, for it interrupts quickly human life and an innocent life. But what to say to a woman who committed it – or to whom induced her to commit it – and is repentent.
“If this person shows repentance of her act, we should say to her: ‘Your sin was great, yes, but not greater than the mercy of God. The Mercy of God is is an abyss in which grave sins are consumed. stressed Father Luiz Carlos Lodi, priest of Anápolis, (in the state of Goiás, Brazil) and leader of the Pro Life movement of the same region.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Code of Canon Law affirms that a woman who commits abortion incurs an automatic excommunication due to the gravity of the sin. Leaving the chart of the bishop or a priest delegated by him the competence of absolving the sin that incurred the excommunication. [In some dioceses of the United States, such as Boston, all priests have been so delegated.]
What did Blessed John Paul II say to women that procured an abortion.
Blessed John Paul II, aware of the drama that women experience through this practice, directed a special thought for them in the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (99)
“The Church is aware of the many factors which may have influenced your decision, and she does not doubt that in many cases it was a painful and even shattering decision. The wound in your heart may not yet have healed. Certainly what happened was and remains terribly wrong. But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly. If you have not already done so, give yourselves over with humility and trust to repentance. The Father of mercies is ready to give you his forgiveness and his peace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. To the same Father and his mercy you can with sure hope entrust your child. With the friendly and expert help and advice of other people, and as a result of your own painful experience, you can be among the most eloquent defenders of everyone’s right to life. Through your commitment to life, whether by accepting the birth of other children or by welcoming and caring for those most in need of someone to be close to them, you will become promoters of a new way of looking at human life.”
With this teaching the Polish Pontiff indicated the roads that should be observed for those that commit this act: Seek the sacrament of reconciliation, and, afterwards, an authentic witness in defense of the faith.
In this way, even before the situation of error and pain, it is possible to begin again, uniting oneself to the mystery of the mercy of the Lord and tracing a sincere road of conversion and holiness. Therefore the Holy Father affirmed: “But do not give in to discouragement and do not lose hope. Try rather to understand what happened and face it honestly.”
For you that did an abortion and encouraged someone to do this act and today are repentant, remember: nothing is greater than the mercy of God!
[NB: In the United States there is a movement called Project Rachel that helps women who seek reconciliation due to an abortion. ]